Drug Kingpin Gets 30 Years

Sentence Ends Prosecutors' 2-decade Fight

August 27, 2003|By Ann W. O'Neill Staff Writer

Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, once one of the world's most feared drug lords, appeared haggard but unrepentant Tuesday as a federal judge in Miami sentenced him to more than 30 years in prison for participating in a multi-ton cocaine smuggling ring after retiring under a Colombian amnesty program.

Ochoa, 47, was convicted in May of two cocaine-conspiracy counts -- charges that barely reflect a career in crime that began when he was 16 and made him a leader of the now-defunct MedellM-Bin cartel, the richest and most brutal criminal enterprise of its time.

For U.S authorities, Ochoa's sentencing closed a chapter that began in the early 1980s, U.S. Attorney Marcos Daniel JimM-Benez said. Ochoa's case, he added, was South Florida's "most significant narcotics prosecution."

Federal authorities in Miami and elsewhere spent more than two decades trying to bring the Colombian cocaine baron to justice.

"In this world of narco-trafficking and what it did to this country," prosecutor Edward Ryan said, Ochoa "is one of four or five people who literally changed the world as we knew it."

The sentence, 365 months, was slightly higher than what prosecutors sought, significantly stiffer than the 24 years the federal probation department recommended, and more than double what Ochoa's defense argued was appropriate under a 1997 extradition treaty between the United States and Colombia.

A ripple of excitement stirred the packed courtroom when defense attorney Roy Black indicated Ochoa intended to make a statement before he was sentenced. But those looking for Ochoa to come clean or plead for mercy were disappointed.

When Judge K. Michael Moore insisted Ochoa speak under oath, he fell silent. Instead, Black did the talking for his client.

"What he really wanted to express were his sincere feelings about having to go through this," Black said. Ochoa, Black added, "disagrees with the judgment of the jury," is "saddened by the fact his extradition was sought under false pretenses" and "believes he was found guilty by association."

Moore passed sentence without comment. But, issuing rulings exposing Ochoa to a term that exceeded federal sentencing guidelines, the judge said he found "substantial evidence" Ochoa was "an adviser, investor, recruiter and supplier" for the BogotM-Ba-based cocaine smuggling ring headed by Alejandro Bernal Madrigal.

Bernal, 43, was the original target when police began video surveillance and planted a bug in his office. When Ochoa turned up on tape, the target turned witness. Bernal testified against Ochoa and received a reduced 14-year sentence.

Although Black complained that the government violated the extradition treaty's terms, JimM-Benez denied the accusation and there was no immediate outcry from Colombian officials. Carmenza Jaramillo, Miami's consul general, was in court for Ochoa's sentencing and afterward said the prison term seemed to comply with the "spirit" of the treaty.

Since 1997, 141 Colombians have been extradited to face U.S. justice, Ryan said. The nation has become the United States' "best extradition partner."

JimM-Benez said it would be against his office's interests to alienate Colombia. Ochoa avoided U.S. charges by surrendering in Colombia in 1990 and serving six years under an amnesty program that wiped clean his MedellM-Bin cartel past. When the countries renewed their extradition treaty, the pact barred U.S. authorities from prosecuting Ochoa for crimes committed before December 1997.

As a result, Ochoa never was held accountable in a U.S. courtroom for charges he helped transform a small operation into a huge, international criminal enterprise that in its heyday smuggled 80 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States, making $7 billion a year in the process. And, he never answered charges he ordered the murder of shadowy DEA informant Adler "Barry" Seal.

Instead, amnesty combined with terms of the extradition treaty made Ochoa appear on paper to be a first-time offender of the same status as "a 19-year-old caught selling a rock of crack on the corner," Ryan said. He asked the judge to deviate upward from the federal sentencing guidelines.

The judge agreed, saying that granting the defense request for a lower sentence would be inappropriate and "an abuse of discretion."

Black said he would appeal.

Ann W. O'Neill can be reached at awoneill@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531.